E-Coverage of fisheries ecosystem and usage pattern of social media.

Abstract

The penetration of internet and subsequent usage of social media, especially among the youth is increasing day by day. In this context, a study was conducted to identify the internet and social media usage by students as well as their mode of accessing professional (fisheries) information through social media. For this study, social media has been classified into two broad categories namely Social networking sites and Instant messaging applications. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data, through online and offline modes, from 223 respondents consisting of undergraduate, Masters and Ph.D.students. The data obtained by the survey was analysed using MS-Excel and SPSS software. Results showed that fisheries professionals spent a significant amount of their time using social media especially Facebook and YouTube with nearly half of them spending > 4 hrs/day. ResearchGate (68.5%), Google Scholar (67.5%), YouTube (65.3%), and Facebook (55.2%) were the most preferred/used applications for accessing fisheries related information while WhatsApp (82.1%) and FB Messenger (53%) were the top choices among instant messaging Apps. Though entertainment was prime reason for majority (58.3%) for accessing Facebook, News (49.5%) and professional information (46.6%) are also considered important by almost half the students. In the case of YouTube, it was entertainment (81%), professional information (60%) and news (50.6%), the same reasons but slightly varying degrees. Analysis of tests of significance showed that usage pattern was similar across both male and female students except for FB usage, which females accessed less frequently. The study also documents the list of Facebook pages maintained by various fisheries professional groups.